Explanations of the Prayer - Ashrei - Part 3

00:00 Speaker 1 This is where the main idea of Pesukei Dezimra begins. We had a class here some years ago about the Rebbe Rashab. Huh? It was the Rebbe Rashab. Maybe you enjoyed it. It was about the Rebbe Rashab, and we studied it. Maybe we’ll say a point about Yud-Beis, and about Yud-Beis as well. Pesukei Dezimra is what the Sages instituted to come before prayer. They say, “A person should always first set out the praise of Hashem, and afterward pray.” Before a person says Shemoneh Esrei and goes to ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu for something, he first has to set out Hashem’s praise. In other words, first we praise and extol Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and then comes prayer, when we ask for what we need. This is explained in Chassidus. The Tzemach Tzedek explains it in the mitzvah of Hallel in Derech Mitzvosecha, and it is mentioned in several other places in Chassidus as well. The question is: Why does Hakadosh Boruch Hu need our praises? More fundamentally, does Hakadosh Boruch Hu need to hear our praises? What does it accomplish? In brief, as explained in Chassidus, praise serves to draw something out of concealment into revelation. Hakadosh Boruch Hu has all the intellectual faculties, all the middos—everything—in absolute perfection. “He is the perfection of all,” so He encompasses every kind of perfection. But all these things are concealed within Hakadosh Boruch Hu—not merely concealed, but in the utmost concealment. In the language of Kabbalah and Chassidus, these are called the ten hidden sefiros. In other words, they are present in some way, but hidden, concealed. And when we pray, we want all these middos to have an effect, to produce an effect in this physical world: for the middah of chessed to be revealed and bring kindness into this world too, and for each middah to accomplish what it needs to accomplish. So to arouse the middos during Shemoneh Esrei, when we pray and ask for our needs in

02:09 Speaker 1 each particular matter, we first “set out the praise of Hashem.” Praising Hakadosh Boruch Hu arouses them. That is the power of praise. It is an act of hallel, and that is why it is called by the term hallel. Hallel is related to revelation, as in the phrases “the light shines” and “when His lamp shone over my head.” The whole idea of hallel is revelation. So hallel means to reveal: to take the middos, the rays of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, which are concealed and hidden in some way, and bring them from concealment into revelation. Chassidus gives the analogy of a child whom you want to encourage to be wise. For example, you tell the child that he is clever. You tell him that many times, and in that way you bring out his wisdom. Sometimes he may not even be all that clever, but you know that, at the core of his soul, he has the capacity for wisdom. By praising him for it, you reveal it—whether it is the quality of wisdom or the quality of kindness. Telling him brings it out. The same applies Above: through praise, we cause these qualities to be revealed. That is the meaning of the Sages’ statement, “A person should always first set out the praise of Hashem, and afterward pray.” There are many aspects to praising Hashem. Sometimes this refers to the first three blessings of Shemoneh Esrei, which are also called praise of Hashem. Sometimes it refers to the sections before that, especially Pesukei Dezimra. The Gemara calls Pesukei Dezimra “Hallel.” It says, “Rabbi Yosi said: May my lot be among those who complete Hallel every day.” The Gemara says,

03:56 Speaker 1 that Rabbi Yosi said he wished to be among those who complete Hallel every day. In other words, he singled out completing Hallel every day for special praise. So the Gemara asks: If he means Hallel, isn’t it forbidden to say Hallel every day? It says elsewhere that someone who says Hallel every day is called... Does he mean Hallel—the Great Hallel? The Hallel we say on Rosh Chodesh, on a festival, on a... But the Gemara says it is forbidden to say Hallel every day. Someone who says Hallel every day—what does it say there? Huh? You tell me first.

04:32 Speaker 2 A blasphemer, no?

04:34 Speaker 1 Huh? One who reviles and blasphemes. Yes, so it’s forbidden. How, then, can he say, “May my lot be among those who complete Hallel every day”? The Gemara answers that these are two different things. There is the Great Hallel, which is about miracles. That Hallel should be said only on special days marked by miracles and wonders. And there is the Hallel called Pesukei Dezimra—or what the Gemara calls Tehillah LeDavid—which is what we say now, Ashrei. So Pesukei Dezimra is the Hallel we say every day. And saying Hallel every day—in this sense, on the contrary, we should say it every day: “May my lot be among those who complete Hallel every day.” Indeed, the Gemara says that anyone who says Tehillah LeDavid three times every day has a share... I don’t remember the exact wording. A person who says Tehillah LeDavid three times every day is assured of being a member of the World to Come. That is why we say Ashrei three times a day. We say it twice during Shacharis, once in the middle of the prayers and once after Shemoneh Esrei. And we say Ashrei at Minchah. The reason we say Ashrei three times every day is corresponding to the three... corresponding to the three prayers: Shacharis, Minchah, and Maariv. If you ask why we don’t say it at Maariv—why we say it twice at Shacharis instead of once at Shacharis, once at Minchah, and once at Maariv—that is explained. It is explained because... It is also explained in one of the maamarim that, since Maariv is a time of darkness, a time of gevurah and judgments, we cannot say Ashrei then. Ashrei is... something that cannot be said at night. Night is a time of judgment. Ashrei is associated with chessed, so we cannot say it then.

06:18 Speaker 1 So they placed it together with Shacharis. That is why we say it twice at Shacharis: once for Shacharis and once to make up for Maariv. In any event, the Gemara speaks of saying Tehillah LeDavid every day, corresponding to the three prayers and the three... Saying it every day is a very great thing. Now, let’s come to Pesukei Dezimra. I think this is familiar; we see it in many stories and many maamarim. Why is it called Pesukei Dezimra? In brief, it is called Pesukei Dezimra. The simple meaning of dezimra is song and singing. But Chassidus also explains that zimra is related to zameir aritzim—cutting down. Zimra can mean cutting, as in “cutting down the mighty.” Aritzim here means thorns, and the thorns need to be cut away. That is called zameir aritzim. What does it mean to cut away thorns? What are we talking about? Chassidus explains that the whole focus of avodah is prayer. In particular, the avodah of Pesukei Dezimra is the avodah of the animal soul. This is when a person explains, persuades, and contemplates the greatness of Hashem in order to awaken his animal soul—his material drive, his physical, animal side—so that it will have a G-dly drive that helps it draw close to G-dliness. That is the purpose of Pesukei Dezimra. In the language of Chassidus, this is called “carving from the outside.” In Pesukei Dezimra, we do the carving. We take the vessel—the animal soul—and make it a vessel for G-dliness. It is like taking a piece of wood. If you want to make something out of it, first you have to cut its outer shape according to how much wood you need. A piece of wood for a table has to be large, while for a cu— a plate, a smaller piece is enough, a small piece. So first you need to carve the outside, to separate the wood

08:18 Speaker 1 from all the other parts that don’t belong to the wood. So you need to carve it out from within, to make it into the kind of vessel you want it to be. And that is the difference between Pesukei Dezimra and “cutting down the thorns.” Pesukei Dezimra is carving from the outside. In other words, the work of Pesukei Dezimra is to get the animal soul out of the mud, out of the materiality of the world, right? That is carving from the outside: cutting away its undesirable aspects. That is why it is also called Pesukei Dezimra, from the expression “to cut down the thorns.” The “thorns” are the weeds. The weeds are distracting thoughts, idle talk, and all the other undesirable things that keep coming back like thorns to the soul. What are weeds? You know, in a field, right? Fruit and vegetables grow in a field, but weeds grow there too. In Castilian they call them yuyos, or something like that. I don’t remember what they’re called in English. They’re things that grow in a field and only do damage. “Thorns” is the translation of kotzim. But the general term includes more than thorns: it means all kinds of things that grow without—nobody invited them. They grow there, and all they do is draw out the moisture and strength of the soil, damaging the produce. So you constantly have to pull them out, cut down those thorns and weeds. That’s the distinction. It also applies in one’s spiritual work to lashon hara and the negative things a person says during davening. All these things keep the G-dly soul from having the strength to concentrate in prayer, and create a barrier between the person and G-dliness. So the work of Pesukei Dezimra is to cut down the thorns. Through the melodies, the song, and the praises and glorification we say in Pesukei Dezimra, we rise up and get out of the mundane world and the mud. That cuts away all the undesirable aspects of the

10:16 Speaker 1 animal soul, and that is why it is called Pesukei Dezimra. There is another point too. Since we’re already speaking about yechidus, this also relates to the simple meaning of the word zimra. What is zimra? The Gemara says that zimra is performed with an instrument. There is shirah and there is zimra. What is the difference? Shirah is with the mouth; zimra is with an instrument. That is the distinction in the physical sense. A person sings a shirah—shirah is only with the mouth—while zimra is specifically with an instrument. A musical instrument: the instruments used to make music. Now, everything in the physical world corresponds to something in the spiritual world. So what is the difference between singing with the mouth and making music with an instrument? Singing with the mouth means the song comes out of the soul. When a person sings with his mouth, he is singing from the feelings of his heart. The mouth reveals what is in the soul. An instrument, by contrast, is inanimate. You take wood, strings, hide, water, and all sorts of materials from which an instrument is made, and you play music with it. The instrument is something external and inanimate; by arranging and preparing it, you make it into something that can produce music. Broadly speaking, that is the difference between the G-dly soul and the animal soul. For the G-dly soul, it is shirah: it sings. The soul itself is a song. It has an affinity for G-dliness; that is the idea of shirah. The animal soul is like an instrument. In itself, it has no connection to G-dliness. It is inanimate, material, and physical. But when we work with it in davening and refine it, it too produces music. So the soul itself is called shirah, and the animal soul, zimra. Yes, the soul itself is called shirah. That is why we speak of the song of the soul and the song of the angels.

12:08 Speaker 1 That is called shirah. Pesukei Dezimra, by contrast, is called zimra because it has to do with the animal soul. The general point here is to understand what Pesukei Dezimra means in Chassidus: to uplift the animal soul and awaken within it a love of G-dliness, so that it wants to leave its material separation behind and draw close to G-dliness. Now let’s come to Pesukei Dezimra itself. The main part of Pesukei Dezimra is the six chapters we say from “Ashrei—A praise of David” through “Let every soul.” According to halachah, these six chapters at the end of Tehillim, beginning with Ashrei and ending with “Let every soul,” are the core of Pesukei Dezimra. That is how I understand the Gemara. Only later, over the generations, did the Tannaim, the Amoraim, and then the Geonim add more sections at different times. But the root, the foundation, when Pesukei Dezimra was instituted, was those chapters, from “A praise of David” through “Let every soul.” Those are the core of Pesukei Dezimra. And within that, each of the six chapters deals with a particular subject, a particular point in the process of refinement that awakens a person’s yearning. But the first chapter, “Ashrei—A praise of David,” is a general statement, as it were, while the other chapters speak about particular aspects of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s praises, as we’ll see later. One chapter speaks about material sustenance; another speaks about all the details. Each chapter deals with a particular subject. Ashrei, by contrast, is a general chapter about praise, song, and the acclaim with which we praise Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “Yehi Chavod” is an introduction. After all, “Yehi Chavod” isn’t a chapter. It consists of verses from a number of different places. There are source references below for anyone who wants to check where they come from. But “Yehi Chavod” is a collection of

14:16 Speaker 1 verses brought together from various places. It is considered an introduction to Pesukei Dezimra, something along the lines of an introduction. It says that “Yehi Chavod” was added to the text later. I don’t know exactly whether that was in the time of the Gemara or afterward, in the time of the Geonim. In “Yehi Chavod,” the Name Havayah appears twenty-one times. I haven’t counted them myself, but that is what it says: the Name Havayah appears twenty-one times in “Yehi Chavod,” corresponding to the twenty-one verses in Ashrei. In other words, there is a connection between “Yehi Chavod” and Ashrei: each has twenty-one. Twenty-one is the numerical value of the Name Ehyeh, as it says in Parshas Shemos, “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh.” That Name has the numerical value twenty-one. Twenty-one is also the numerical value of vadai, “certain.” Vadai is the opposite of Amalek. Amalek has the numerical value of safek, “doubt.” Vadai is the opposite of Amalek; it is an aspect of holiness. There, instead of doubt, everything is certain. “Vadai is His Name; so is His praise.” When we say “Vadai is His Name; so is His praise” in the Rosh Hashanah prayers, we mean the Name Ehyeh. That is its meaning: “Vadai is His Name” refers to the Name Ehyeh, whose numerical value is the same as vadai. And if you calculate Ehyeh times Ehyeh—twenty-one times twenty-one—you get the numerical value of emes, “truth.” This relates to the fact that Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s Name is truth, and to “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh”—that is, twenty-one times twenty-one. So the Name Havayah appears twenty-one times in “Yehi Chavod,” and there are twenty-one verses in Ashrei. This establishes the theme of “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh,” the theme of truth. There is a story about the Tzemach Tzedek. The Tzemach Tzedek would tell how, when he did not want to accept the leadership, there were all sorts of questions: who would be Rebbe? The chassidim wanted the Tzemach Tzedek to be Rebbe, and then

16:23 Speaker 1 A group of chassidim traveled with the Rebbe of Komarno to the court of the Ruzhiner. The Ruzhiner was a grandson of the Maggid of Mezritch, and he had a very good relationship with the Tzemach Tzedek. There are quite a few stories about the two of them. I wanted to tell some of those stories here, but because we’re discussing Ehyeh, I’ll tell this one. The chassidim were with the Ruzhiner, and there are several stories about what happened during their visit. One of them is that they came to ask the Ruzhiner for advice—some insight, some way to bring about the Tzemach Tzedek’s acceptance of the leadership. The story goes that during the seudah of Shalosh Seudos, the Ruzhiner said that when the Jewish people were about to leave Egypt, Moshe Rabbeinu asked Hakadosh Boruch Hu, “And they will say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I tell them?” Right? Moshe Rabbeinu was asking what Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s name was. Hakadosh Boruch Hu told him, “I will be what I will be”—Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh. That was His name. So the Ruzhiner explained that Moshe Rabbeinu’s question was: How would the Jewish people endure exile? A long exile is no simple matter. What would sustain the Jewish people during exile? And the answer was Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh. He said that Ehyeh has the numerical value of twenty-one. Twenty-one times twenty-one is 441, the numerical value of the letters of emes, truth. And emes is an acronym for [unclear]. So go back, and the Tzemach Tzedek will accept the leadership. That is how the story is told. And indeed, that means that—

18:14 Speaker 1 that the teachings of Chassidus, the teachings of [unclear]—meaning those of the Tzemach Tzedek—were the point here: they are what would enable us to endure during exile. That’s a story told from that time. There is another story as well about the teachings of [unclear]. And incidentally, the twenty-one times mentioned here is also a theme for our own time. Now, everyone knows that the first two verses of Ashrei are not part of the chapter. The first verse, “Fortunate are those who dwell in Your house; they will praise You forever,” is from chapter 84 of Tehillim. The second verse, “Fortunate is the people for whom this is so; fortunate is the people whose G-d is Hashem,” is from chapter 144. Tehillah LeDavid is chapter 145. So these verses are not part of that chapter. What happened? What is the history of these verses? The final verse, “And we will bless G-d,” is also not from that chapter; it too was added later. But right now we want to look at the opening verses. What the sefarim tell us is that when the Minchah prayer was instituted—and Minchah begins with Tehillah LeDavid—they wanted it to begin with some sort of introduction, rather than going straight into Tehillah LeDavid. They wanted an introduction, as it were, to gather oneself for the prayer and the chapter, to begin in a particular way. So they added these two verses: “Fortunate are those who dwell in Your house; they will praise You forever. Fortunate is the people for whom this is so; fortunate is the people whose G-d is Hashem.” But what do these verses mean on a simple level? Minchah is when this was first instituted—only for Minchah. Later it remained in place and was included in other prayers too, but initially it was instituted only for Minchah. And the intent of these verses is—

20:07 Speaker 1 to say that Minchah, as explained in Chassidus, is a prayer that comes in the middle of one’s work. A person has many tasks; it’s the middle of the day. Even for someone sitting in the beis midrash, it isn’t enough to remain there; he has to pray Minchah. As the Gemara says, stopping in the middle of learning to go and pray Minchah is very difficult. That is discussed in the Gemara, [unclear] in the Talmud. But Minchah arrives, and even someone occupied with business, for whom Minchah presents a challenge, stops everything and comes to shul to pray. So we say, “Fortunate are those who dwell in Your house; they will praise You forever.” These Jews who come to shul to pray Minchah—even though it is hard to stop in the middle of work and everything else—are the ones of whom we say, “Fortunate are those who dwell in Your house.” “Those who dwell in Your house” refers to the house above all others, the shul: fortunate are those who sit there and come to pray. Of them we say, “They will praise You forever.” By doing this, they merit to praise Hakadosh Boruch Hu there. First we praise the Jews who come to shul and pray. Then we broaden it to the Jewish people as a whole and add another praise: “Fortunate is the people for whom this is so; fortunate is the people whose G-d is Hashem.” “Fortunate is the people for whom this is so” refers to everything Hakadosh Boruch Hu bestows upon the Jewish people—all the goodness, all the abundance and blessings. We say, “Fortunate is the people for whom this is so”: we have all the good things Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives us. And “fortunate is the people whose G-d is Hashem”: Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose us and gave us all—

21:44 Speaker 1 this abundance. That is why we say “fortunate.” That is the simple meaning. There are also deeper meanings here according to the mystical teachings. We’re ready for that already, aren’t we? Just one point here, and then we’ll come to Ashrei. First, “fortunate” appears three times: “Fortunate are those who dwell,” “fortunate is the people,” “fortunate is the people.” Three times. The Siddur explains that these correspond to the three lines, as we said earlier. We said that the day’s prayers are said three times a day, corresponding to the three lines, and in fact each one, more specifically, includes all three lines. That is why we begin with three instances of “fortunate,” corresponding to the three lines. That is one point. More specifically, according to the mystical teachings, Ashrei refers to the sefirah of Kesser. Ashrei carries the sense of happiness and delight, and it refers to Kesser. So the three instances of Ashrei relate to Kesser. And within Kesser itself there are three aspects, known in the language of Kabbalah as or tzach, or metzuchtzach, and or kadmon. These are three levels within Kesser and the source of the three levels in Atzilus. That is why we say Ashrei three times. Well, that sounds very Kabbalistic. With Hashem’s help, next time we’ll discuss it a little more fully, including, of course, what those three instances of Ashrei have to do with it.